Bucharest Stock Exchange plunges amid coronavirus, oil price concerns

The main index of the Bucharest Stock Exchange – BET – dropped by almost 10% in the opening of the trading session on Monday, March 9, amid concerns related to the economic effects of the coronavirus spread and a sudden overnight drop in oil prices triggered by price was between major producers Russia and Saudi Arabia. The shares of Romania’s biggest energy group, OMV Petrom (SNP), plunged by as much as 20% in the Monday opening.

The declines tempered over the day and the BET stabilized at about 6% under the Friday closing value, with the shares of OMV Petrom down 12.4%, as the company is directly hit by the lower oil prices, and those of aluminum producer Alro Slatina at minus 12.3% (as of 13:00). The shares of lender BRD were down 6.7% while those of Banca Transilvania had a decline of 4.5%.

The evolution of the Bucharest Stock Exchange is correlated with those of international markets, which also recorded major drops on Monday. The FTSE 100 index of the London Stock Exchange was down 5.7% (at 13:15 Bucharest time), the DAX (Germany) and CAC 40 (France) indexes were down over 6.5%, while the FTSE MIB index of the Italian stock exchange was down almost 10%, after the Italian Government closed down the northern part of the country to stop the spreading of the coronavirus (COVID 19).

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